World Alzheimer's Day

So, in case you forgot, today was world Alzheimer's day.

OK, so that could be considered in bad taste, but in the words of Larry the Cable Guy, "Now that there's funny, I don't care who you are".
Honestly, though, I have cared for many people with this terrible disease, and there is nothing funny about it, and I truly feel for those who have to deal with it on a daily basis.  There is something that is just so "not right" about losing your mental capacity while your physical body is still going strong and I commend and support all of those people fighting to find either treatment or a cure.  God bless you all.
However, having worked in the medical profession, I also know that we often use humor to lighten the burden of the constant barrage of stress, pain, and grief that we see all the time, so cut me a little bit of slack here and I'll tell you why this has anything to do with nonsense poems.
I come from a family of jokers and story tellers, although I am amazed that my Mom and Dad can't figure out where I get my imagination from.  Helloooo!  Dad was always making up funny rhymes and sayings, and Mom still sings songs that make absolutely no sense, but the kids all love them.  So in answer to your question Mom and Dad, I get it from YOU!
The segue into the poetry link comes from the memory of a day a few months ago when I was at my folks house sitting in the hot tub with my Mom and two neices, and decided to recite a few nonsense poems like "the flea and the fly in the flue", "Jabberwocky", and finally, a little ditty by William Hughes Mearns called "Antigonish".

With all credit to Hughes Mearns, the popular poem starts out something like this:

As I was walking up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away!

Well, forget the little girls, my Mom latched onto this poem and for the next day I had to keep repeating it so she could try to remember it.  As we were doing this, we had the bright idea that she should recite the poem to people at church the next day like she was actually trying to tell them a serious story just to see what their reaction would be.

Apparently, the reactions ranged from acute confusion to an embarrassed pitying response such as "Oh, that's too bad Claudia.  He really wasn't there again today?"  I'm sure that the whispered talk around the coffee and danish that morning was something to the effect  of a hushed "did Claudia tell you about the man who wasn't there?  I do think she is starting to lose her memory, it's so sad...."  *cue sad faces, as people look at the floor and shake their heads slowly*

So, as I see it, being able to recite a nonsense poem or use a nonsense word right off the cuff without preamble or explanation is a highly valuable skill, essential to ferrett out those who really aren't listening anyway and to whom you have an overwhelming desire to flummox.  And yes, flummox is a real word and a pretty cool one at that, so your assignment for today is to use it in a sentence during the course of normal conversation, just to see what people do!

Such a brillig day it was today, my friend Kathy and I gyred and gimbled at Jazz on the Beach, then galumphed over to Lou's and gyred some more.  Although I was quite scurvish and
broff to begin with, eventually I was able to stimp around the floor quite splurgully, and we left feeling pretty good.

Pick a word and try it out over the weekend and leave me a comment to tell me your word and how it went!